The Church of England has poured £60m of vicars' pension investments into hedge funds run by some of the world's richest people.

One of the funds is run by US billionaire Ray Dalio, while another is managed from a south London mews house by British multimillionaire David Harding. Disclosure that the church is risking vicar's pensions in hedge funds prompted a call from within the CofE for the church's pension board to scrutinise hedge fund remuneration policies.

Hedge funds have been blamed by senior members of the church for causing the banking crisis and driving up food prices. They have also attracted opprobrium for paying fund managers hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

In 2008 Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, accused hedge funds of the constant "grabbing of things in the world". Michael Nazir-Ali, the former bishop of Rochester, has said: "The turmoil in the markets is almost certainly the result of amoral forces. Those with power need to ensure that the poor are not disproportionately affected."

The shift in attitude and investment strategy away from safer stock market holdings is disclosed in the annual report of the pension board, which manages the pensions of 32,000 clergy and other church staff. It shows that 6% of the £1bn fund was transferred to three hedge funds last year. One of the funds, Bridgewater Associates, is run by Dalio, the world's 88th richest person with a $10bn (£6.4bn) personal fortune, according to Forbes magazine. Bridgewater's flagship fund was one of the top-performing hedge funds last year, making annual returns of about 20%, and netting Dalio $4bn, making him the world's highest paid fund manager.

Another fund, Winton Capital is run by David Winton Harding, the 92nd richest person in Britain with a personal fortune of £800m, according to the Sunday Times rich list. Harding, who founded Winton in 1997 after he left Man Group where he co-founded the AHL computer-driven fund, was paid £60m in 2010. Over the past decade he has made more than £270m in dividends and salaries.

The third fund is Blackrock Asset Management, which made profits of more than $3bn last year and is listed on the New York stock exchange. Hedge fund managers are typically paid 2% of the value of the total assets under management and 20% of profits achieved.

The Reverend William Campbell-Taylor, vicar of St Thomas' Church in Stamford Hill, London, urged the pension board to investigate hedge fund pay. "Why do hedge fund managers need to be paid a huge bonus, taking a fifth of all profits, simply because they are doing their jobs and investing effectively? You would hope the church's pension board has the mojo to question this practice."

Pierre Jameson, the church pension board's investment officer, said that "clearly there were concerns" about the church's support of hedge fund bosses pay packets and said the issue had led to intense debate. "It [pay] is a broad concern, [but] we feel that if we want to achieve superior returns we have to pay for it," Jameson said. "We felt it [excessive pay] was a fact of life." Jameson said Dalio and Harding's funds were selected in preference to some isted hedge funds because "these are entrepreneurs who have built them up … and they've taken significant risks."

Jameson said the pension board rejected several hedge funds due to ethical concerns concerning short-selling, market manipulation and commodity speculation, which can force up food prices. He said the three funds selected did not short individual company's stock and were sensitive to the issues of agricultural commodity speculation.

Managers from all three hedge funds, including Harding, were interviewed by the pension board prior to the investment. The deals were also approved by the church's ethical investment advisory group.

The £60m investment was split equally between the three funds. Jameson said the church has spent about £500,000 on hedge fund management fees. He pointed out that both Dalio and Harding are big charitable donors.

He said the board was happy with the performance of the investments, which collectively returned 5.9% last year compared to a 2.4% loss for the overall funds.

Jameson said the church would take a "strong interest" if there was any suggestion of wrongdoing at any of the funds or companies it is invested in. The annual report shows that church held 35 meetings with companies, including BP, Glencore and News Corporation, to raise concerns last year. The church raised its concerns surrounding phone hacking at the News of the World at News Corp's AGM last year. Two years ago the church sold its entire stake in FTSE 100 company Vedanta Resources over concerns of human rights violations at the company's Indian mines.

However, the annual report shows the pension fund's top 20 investments include mining companies Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Anglo American and oil companies Royal Dutch Shell, BG Group and Exxon Mobil. The fund also has big investments in Apple and Google. The church's ethical principles prevent or severely limit its investment in companies that supply or are involved in alcohol, pornography, payday loans, pawnbroking, weapons, tobacco, gambling and human embryonic cloning.

The Church Commissioners, which manage a further £5.5bn of church assets, have also recently invested in hedge funds.